Boning up on Health

One of the (too many) roles that I have taken on as a county councillor is working as assistant to Alan Murray, the portfolio holder for Health and Adult Social Care (ASC).

One aspect of this role involves chairing a policy panel to inform decision making in the area.   To be honest, I do not know a huge amount about Health or ASC, so on Thursday I started to educate myself. All local authorities have recently been given new responsibilities for health, so I am probably not alone in needing to learn more.

In the morning I went to Ipswich Hospital where I observed a meeting of the Management Board.  Many of the key people at the hospital are relatively new, and the main thrust of most of the agenda items seemed to be aimed at securing improvements in clinical practice.  We heard about a better protocol to enable staff to avoid pressure ulcers (bed sores to you and me), and a study aimed at improving communication between staff and patients.

I would have sort that this sort of thing was fairly basic stuff, but nonetheless was fascinating for someone like me coming from a position of almost total ignorance.  Looking at the performance statistics overall the hospital seems to be doing a good job, and the atmosphere at the meeting was positive and upbeat;  a far cry from some of the horror stories we read in the press.

 I was very warmly welcomed at the meeting and the new Chief Executive has offered me a tour of the hospital, in order to learn more, in due course.

In the afternoon I went to Bury St Edmunds to meet Ed Garrett, the Chief Operating Officer of the West Suffolk Clinical Commissioning Group.  This is the newly formed body, run by GP’s, which since April has taken over the local commissioning of health care services for over 200,000 people in the West of the county.

The sort of thing the CCG is concerned with is providing planned and emergency hospital care, community health services, rehabilitation such as physiotherapy, and therapy for mental health patients.

I spent a very instructive hour with Mr Garrett, who explained how the CCG fits into the overall structure of the NHS. He also explained that a high level of engagement with the community and its representatives is key to ensuring that services are correctly configured and delivered.  I am looking forward to having more discussions with the CCG, and to attending some of their engagement events in the future.

If you are interested in finding out more about the local CCG the website can be found here